Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Marriages Made on Madison Avenue?

2006; Binghamton University; Volume: 18; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/jowh.2006.0065

1527-2036

Ada Holland Shissler,

Race, History, and American Society

Marriages Made on Madison Avenue? A. Holly Shissler (bio) Cinderella Dreams addresses the phenomenon of what authors Cele Otnes and Elizabeth Pleck call the "lavish wedding," primarily in the United States, though they give a nod to other regions of the world in one chapter. The authors identify the lavish wedding as what might best be termed a floating signifier and then attempt to delineate the etiology and meaning of this signifier in American life of the post–World War II era, as well as its spread beyond American shores. The identification and study of floating signifiers has much to offer students not only of American life, but of other societies. This is perhaps especially the case in the context of globalization, when many practices cross state and national boundaries and play distinctive roles in individual localities, while simultaneously assuming different meanings on an international stage. The question of veiling among Muslims comes to mind as an obvious example. Otnes and Pleck approach this question using the tools of cultural studies and the history of consumption. Rejecting what might be considered more conventional explanations of the growth in expenditure and importance that Americans are giving to their wedding ceremonies—the average cost of $4,000 in 1984 rose to $16,000 in 1994 (2)—such as shoring up a weakened institution, participating in competitive conspicuous consumption, performing a rite of passage, or compensating women who are seen as having more to lose as they enter the married state, Otnes and Pleck argue that the deeper explanation is a symbiosis between consumer culture and romantic notions of love. The consumption of luxury and single-use goods and services has become the primary means of signifying the romantic "specialness" of an occasion, creating utopias, and escaping the mundane. "The rite of the lavish wedding is increasingly popular because it glorifies both romantic love and the love of 'romantic' consumer goods, promises transformation to its participants, provides a repository of memories for this magic and romance and offers the promise of perfect … consumption" (19). Chapters two through six trace the rise and evolution of various aspects of the modern wedding package in the United States, including bridal manuals, magazines, and shops; the bridal registry; the diamond engagement ring; the engagement party; the catered wedding reception; wedding photography; and the honeymoon. These chapters make use of a wide range of sources including popular films, newspaper society columns, interviews [End Page 118] with ordinary people, etiquette manuals, U.S. government statistics, and advertising. The history and analysis of advertising campaigns is one of the most interesting and effective aspects of this study. The account of the diamond industry's successful effort to establish the diamond engagement ring as the norm at the expense of a simple band or of rings embellished with other stones is fascinating. The authors do a wonderful job of showing how the language of advertising with its images of permanence, perfection, and the extraordinary—"a diamond is forever"—operates in symbiosis with romantic notions of love. An interesting characteristic of the wedding complex they describe is the requirement that its elements be both standardized and unique. The engagement ring must sport a diamond of a certain size, but it should also be an individual expression and a once-in-a-lifetime object that cannot be reused (hence the relatively low resale value of such rings). As Pleck and Otnes point out at a number of junctures in the book, this combination of the standardized and the romantic seems to provide the "'illusion of rebelliousness' while discouraging true iconoclasm," (71) to provide an escape that obviates the need for real change, and to emphasize the pursuit of "a 'myself-that-could-be' through consumption" (9). In tracing the history of the modern wedding complex the authors mention many interesting phenomena that seem at first blush to stand outside the "classical" embodiment of that complex or that run contrary to conventional wisdom about certain practices. For instance, the authors note how the success of the diamond engagement ring had little to do, contrary to what is sometimes averred, with providing women a kind of insurance against damaged "prospects" should an engagement fall apart...